A Grace at the Heart of Teams of Our Lady
Fr. Augusto Garcia, Spiritual Counselor – ERI

One of the fundamental characteristics that identifies and expresses the unity of the Teams of Our Lady Movement in all regions is the accompaniment of priests – Spiritual Counsellors – or Spiritual Companions in each team. Couples appreciate and are grateful for their presence, and some even consider it a privilege given the growing shortage of priests in some regions. But we must ask whether everyone understands why their presence is essential in the team. For some, it may be simply functional, important because of their training and studies, but not necessary given the difficulty of inviting a priest. This latter situation in today’s culture may tempt us to reason in a functional way. That is, as if the only way forward is to give an answer based solely on human effectiveness, which, consciously or not, reduces the Movement to a sociological institution and hides from us the life-giving presence of the charism and gifts granted by the Holy Spirit.

That is why I think it is worth remembering that, throughout its history, from the first meetings in 1939 and in the Movement’s essential documents, the reference to the priest has been a fundamental characteristic of the Teams. The Charter (1949) states that: “Each team must secure the help of a priest.” The ERI document concerning The Priest Spiritual Counsellor (1993) also states: “The Movement has always sought priests to be counsellors to teams. This is a well-established tradition and a very strong commitment.” The Guide to Teams of Our Lady of 2001, while noting the difficulty teams have in finding priest spiritual counsellors, reconfirms this desire when it states: “Each team must obtain the help of a priest…”. And finally, the Canonical Statutes of Teams of Our Lady (2002), revised in 2014, refer to these by saying: “Composed of 5 to 7 couples, (the team) is assisted by a priest” A Spiritual Counsellor”.

The Movement’s argument of “tradition and a very strong commitment” in maintaining the presence of the priest as a fundamental feature is clearly very valid. However, reading the document “The Priest Counsellor and the Spiritual Accompaniment in Teams of Our Lady” from the ERI (2017), I would like to insist and invite you to reflect that this argument of tradition is based on the ecclesial reality experienced in each team of the mutual enrichment of the sacraments of holy orders and marriage. Both sacraments complement each other to give life to the Church. In both cases, it is a covenant. This was Father Caffarel’s intuition when, during the team’s prayer, one of the women said to God: “Lord, we thank you for the marriage of our two sacraments: priesthood and marriage.” Faced with this, Fr. Caffarel, in his intuition as a founder enlightened by the Holy Spirit, did not doubt its depth and concluded with his own reflection: “I think this is a very deep insight and is part of this initial dynamism, the covenant between the priesthood… which represents the Church… and couples… who bring their riches…” (The Foundational Charism – 1987). Herein lies the spiritual and theological source that makes the presence of the Spiritual Counsellor an essential feature of the charism of the Teams of Our Lady.

In the theology of the sacraments in recent decades, mainly since the pontificate of St. John Paul II, there has been reflection on the relationship between the sacrament of marriage and the other sacraments, particularly the sacrament of holy orders. Therefore, with the aim of deepening our theological understanding of the institutional structure of the Movement, I would like us to read together what Cardinal Marc Ouellet writes. Based on the current principle that “the entire sacramental structure of the Church expresses the joint fruitfulness of Christ the Bridegroom and the Church the Bride,” he emphasizes the profound relationship of grace that exists between these two sacraments. Cardinal Ouellet writes:

The marriage and the priesthood meet in the objectivity of the sacramental life as the two dimensions – the horizontal and the vertical, respectively – of the covenant. The priest serves as minister for the vertical gift that descends from God to fructify the spouses’ covenant by means of Christ’s love for the Church. Thanks to the priest’s Eucharistic ministry, the spouses can offer themselves to the Father in and with Christ, who gathers and enfolds them in his spousal love for the Church. The priest represents the gift of the Bridegroom both personally and sacramentally, whereas consecrated virginity and indissoluble marriage incarnate the Church-Bride’s response to this gift. Thus connected by means of the priestly ministry, marriage and virginity sustain and confirm each other as the two paths of holiness that they are. In both cases, the total gift and offering of oneself, body and soul, in response to the love of Christ the Bridegroom creates a genuine ecclesial ‘state of life’ founded on a definitive supernatural bond.

Moreover, marriage and the ministerial priesthood meet and correspond in the objective, sacramental communication of the trinitarian life. The sacrament of marriage expresses the reciprocal fruitfulness of the divine Persons who are present in the couple created in God’s image and likeness; the sacrament of holy orders, on the other hand, gives particular expression to the gift, in Christ, of the Father, who is the origin of the entire mystery of communion in the order of nature as in the order of grace… In representing Christ, the Head and Bridegroom, then, the episcopal and presbyteral ministry supplies the nourishment of the Word and the Bread of life that ultimately descends from the Father.

Christ has also provided a specific help for a human love affected and wounded by sin and its consequences: concupiscence, egoism, and division. Through absolution, Christ extends to the spouses the grace of repentance and reconciliation, thus renewing both the grace of their baptism and its concretization in conjugal life. (M. Ouellet, Mystery and sacrament of Love: a theology of marriage and the family for the new evangelization, 2015, pg. 171-172)

In conclusion, what a beautiful liturgy we would celebrate if we participated in our Team meetings—priests or spiritual companions and married couples—with a more attentive awareness of the abundance of sacramental grace which, as Cardinal Ouellett says, is communicated in the communion of Trinitarian life between marriage and priest. Please, let us not forget to pray for priestly vocations and for marriage.